Recall petition filed against Portland Mayor Sam Adams

Campaign to recall Portland Mayor Sam AdamsOrganizers of the campaign to recall Portland Mayor Sam Adams filed paperwork this morning with the City Auditor's Office. Jasun Wurster, leader of the campaign, said he expected to begin circulating petitions Wednesday to remove Adams from office.

Volunteers with the campaign to recall Portland Mayor Sam Adams expect to begin circulating petitions today to remove him from office.

The group filed paperwork Tuesday with the city Auditor's Office to begin the campaign -- and now has 90 days to collect 32,183 signatures of registered Portland voters to put the recall on the ballot. Andrew Carlstrom, the city elections officer, has approved the recall petition for circulation.

Jasun Wurster, leader of the campaign, said he plans to collect 50,000 signatures to be certain to have enough valid ones.

In the past

Some high-profile Portland recalls and resignations under fire:

1924: Voters recall all three Multnomah County commissioners for "gross irregularities" in awarding contracts for the Burnside and Ross Island bridges. All three had been Ku Klux Klan proteges. 1932: City Commissioner John Mann is recalled for "numerous, open and unashamed" acts of malfeasance, including requiring city employees to perform work on his property. Mayor George Luis Baker narrowly survives a recall that accused him of "giving aid and comfort to denizens of the underworld." 1949: Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Elliott is recalled after newspapers expose that he received a bad conduct military discharge and never attended the college he claimed. 1952: Councilman Jake Bennett is recalled for, among other things, being "discourteous," "abusive" "uncouth" and "insulting." Voters got an earful of Bennett after radio station KGW began broadcasting council meetings. 2004: Neil Goldschmidt, former Portland mayor, Oregon governor and U.S. secretary of transportation, resigns as president of the state Board of Higher Education after admitting he sexually abused a teenage girl while he was mayor in the 1970s. 2008: Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto retires early. Among other problems, a state committee concluded Giusto had likely lied when he told his state police supervisors that he wasn't having an affair with the wife of then-Gov. Goldschmidt. At the time, Giusto was working on Goldschmidt's security detail.

Adams had a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old legislative intern in 2005 when he was a city commissioner but repeatedly denied it when rumors surfaced during the run-up to the 2008 mayoral election. He easily won election last May, then acknowledged under pressure in January that he lied about the relationship and asked the intern to lie, too.

"He has lost the trust of the public and other elected officials essential to the financial support of the city of Portland," the campaign says in the petition cover sheet. "Sam Adams' orchestration of an elaborate cover-up and continued abuse of power has done serious damage to citizens and the city's national and international reputation."

A state attorney general's investigation found there wasn't enough credible evidence to charge Adams with a crime in the case.

"Portlanders are a fair-minded people," Adams said. "My focus remains on the top priority of getting Portlanders back to work and positioning Portland at the hub of sustainable industries."

Wurster, a political science student at Portland State University, created a Web site -- recallsamadams.com -- shortly after Adams' admission and said he now has 640 volunteers who have signed up to help gather signatures. The volunteers will receive training in the next few days.

The strategy will be to go door to door, not to approach people on the streets or at MAX stops, he said.

"It will be the citizens of Portland that decide the fate of the city, not Sam Adams' well-paid lawyers," Wurster said at a news conference outside City Hall.

He stressed that the recall will be a "positive" campaign that won't be partisan or anti-gay. "Anyone who wants to cast hatred will not be welcome in the campaign," he said.

Under state law, the recall couldn't begin until Adams had served six months in office.

Once the signatures are submitted, the auditor has 10 days to certify them. If enough valid signatures are certified, Adams has five days to resign or submit a statement explaining why he should not be recalled. The City Council then must set an election within 35 days.